Tuesday, October 7, 2014

We had a very good day of surgeries yesterday. The kids kept Dr. Pablo very busy with a little bit of low blood pressure here, a little fever there, a little wheezing down the hall, but Pablo, the CSI nurses, and the wonderful CIMA Hospital nursing staff took great care them all and by sunrise you would never have known there was a problem! The families are so grateful, and even the kids seem to leave with a look that the are happy to have stopped by...or maybe they're just happy to be hightailing it out of here before we decide to do something else!

Today is our last day of surgeries. We are doing mostly rhinoplasties. These are older kids who have had several lip and palate surgeries already who really benefit from getting a reconstruction of their nose to give it a more typical look. Teenagers worry about every detail of their appearance, so most of us can only imagine how hopeful they are about getting to be better looking--they are all beautiful already inside and out but we glad to boost their confidence a little!!

Monday, October 6, 2014

The advance team has arrived in Hermosillo! Our trip was happily uneventful--we met up with Jon Grishkin in Phoenix and then took the puddle jumper (without the puddles) to Hermosillo. No problems with luggage or customs, and Coca and Lourdes from St. Andrew's Clinic were waiting for us at the airport. We went to the hospital and were warmly greeted by the CIMA volunteers and staff who will be working with us this week. They're starting to feel like family! We made plans for screening and checked out our supplies. We will be screening 86 children to determine if they need surgery that we can do and to be sure that they are healthy enough for general anesthesia. Hopefully everyone will get a good night's sleep tonight as we start at the hospital at bright and early and it will be a busy day! The CSI main team will arrive midday and check back for photos of the party that the CIMA volunteers put on for CSI and the children and their hopeful families! t

Yesterday we had a really busy screening day at CIMA hospital! We screened 89 children and out of those, 46 will be getting surgery this year. Happily we did not have to turn anyone away who needed surgery because we have the extra surgery day on Tuesday. We will be doing six rhinoplasties ("nose jobs"). Often the nose is flattened and asymmetrical in children with a cleft lip or palate, and having surgery to correct this can really improve their appearance and their self-confidence. Rhinoplasties take a long time, and normally with only two days of surgery we may do only one or two so this is a great opportunity for us and the kids and their families!

Everyone on the team is doing fine, and now we are just getting started on our first day of surgeries. The CIMA hospital volunteers and the St. Andrew's clinic volunteers are, as always, wonderful to work with and they make sure that every child and family is well taken care of!

Today we are beginning our second day of surgeries. We did 20 surgeries yesterday and everyone is doing well this morning. Maria, Ashley, and Paul are busy upstairs completing the discharge paperwork as all but two of the kids will be able to go home today. Everyone is working hard but the delightful CIMA Hospital food service staff keep the guacamole and quesadillas coming so energy and spirits are high throughout the whole long day (hospitals everywhere should take note!). Our patients are really good little sports--even after the bad day we made them have yesterday, some of them were able to give us little smiles this morning!

Friday, November 15, 2013

So sad to leave our friends at Duside Hospital and Firestone Guest house.
A quick goodye and discharging of patients followed by a wonderful send off
ceremony at the hospital.
Lora Koppel, Dave Tetzlaff and Lynn Randall left early to conduct a site visit in
Port Harcourt, Nigeria for CSI.

More summary later about the 116 patients we screened and 98 surgeries. For now,
a few parting shots....

Thursday, November 14, 2013

It is Thursday afternoon and the pediatric ward is abuzz with our final patients
and their respective parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. Many are wearing
fish hats from the Minnesota State Fair which Gander Mountain very nicely donated.
All kids are holding either a doll or teddy bear made by Dollies Making A Difference.
They have a white-knuckle grip on their recovery room bags which also include
books, toothbrushes, a washcloth, beanie baby, a baseball cap nicely donated by
Zephyr and several other items. Thank goodness for the Liberian
peds nurses, as well as Victoria and Patience, the CSI tag team up there.

Father& son checking in for surgery
Young patient with a gown loving made
by Carol Miller. Carol makes our gowns,
nonos and recovery room bags.

All surgeries were deemed a success. Our final number is hovering right around 100. Lynn
Randall led the effort of packing up the supplies area. Mary Johnson the OR; Katie
Stewart and Julieann Swanson the medical records area;. Anna Koppel pre-op, with
everyone else helping wherever they were needed. One father and mother stopped
by, their daughter had been discharged -to deliver a framed thank you note to a
couple of CSI team members who had made a significant difference in the states.
In addition, a huge shout out to everyone at Duside Hospital, from Executive Director,
Joye Phillips to Dr. Lawrence Sherman and all of the many many staff who have been
hijacked to do nothing but help us in very possible way. It is exceedingly inspiring.
Now, more pictures, and promise to blog again tomorrow, our final day

Joye Phillips, Executive Director Firestone Duside

Dr. Raj Sarpal, CSI Anesthesiologist Tracey Ryersee, CSI OR Nurse

Dr. Dave Andrews allows a patient to keep on the crown
he received during pre-op during surgery

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Today's surgeries are over and it was a super successful day. Everyone worked
very hard.

Shown here are pediatric patients who weren't CSI patients,but who love the
Gander Mountain muskie hats and the tv and videos donated by CSI.

Also shown is our patient Othello, a 22 year old young man who has been unable to continue his education because of a huge tumor that grew on the side of his face. He was mocked mercilessly by his schoolmates. Shown here is Othello looking at himself in the mirror for the first time after surgery.

This girl became pregnant at age 14 and is now 15. Her mouth was burned by drinking a poisonous liquid. Here she is shown with her 10 month old baby who is lying waiting for her mother to get better.

Shown here is the wonderful Amy working in Post-Op tending to a woman who had a huge tumor on the front of her face which had literally taken over her entire face. It had distorted
her face completely. Dr. Eric Moore did an amazing job removing the tumor.